So, a few years ago, Seth and I hiked from Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) to the town of Grand Lake, Colorado. You can read all about that trip here. It was a lot of fun and we made some great memories, but we also made a lot of mistakes and were so miserable by the end that we agreed to go back someday and do it right. Namely, without giant, heavy, backpacks.
The weekend before I left for Australia, that’s exactly what we did.
We dropped the boys off with Seth’s parents the night before and left home bright and early Sunday morning. There were already a lot of cars in the Bear Lake parking lot at 6 am but it was also 4th of July weekend, so there’s that.
I looked like a complete douchebag in my white sunglasses and Seth’s trucker hat but I forgot sunscreen at home so they basically saved my life and I didn’t care what I looked like. The pictures do make me cringe a little though.
I probably forgot the sunscreen because I was too excited about my new Scott shoes. They were awesome and I am now in love with them.
Back to the hike: we took the right-hand turn onto the Bear Lake loop and walked until we reached the first turnoff for Flattop Mountain. After following this turnoff for a while, there’s another one turn and it’s at that one where Seth and I made the fateful decision to carry our packs over instead of back to the Bear Lake parking lot during our last hike. Big mistake.
The views on the way up were incredible and we were able to enjoy them a lot more than we did last time.
We packed an adequate amount of food this time too and I discovered that the Honey Stinger Gingersnap waffle is possibly even better than the strawberry flavor. I’ll have to try them out on Ruger to see if he approves.
All of the flowers at alpine were blooming and looked so perfect that I couldn’t stop taking pictures and I don’t even like flowers all that much. 
Again, the views were incredible and we actually enjoyed them this time around. 
We found a friendly Marmot hanging out at the Emeral Lake viewpoint.
Seth put up with a lot of picture taking….
There was a small snow field to cross near the summit of Flattop and then we were at the top. 
I got a nice picture of Seth looking like he’s contemplating life, but he’s really just peeing.
The puddles of water all over were crystal clear. I could have stared into them all day. 
Our trail took us across Flattop and down into this valley.
We found another nice little snow field that was really not so nice and was actually very steep with water gushing around the rocks hidden underneath. 
We came across more snow and had to cross above the trail (you can sort of see it just above the rock in the picture below) because it was late enough in the day that there was a river flowing under the snow and it had softened enough that we couldn’t walk across.
I was pretty sure we were about to die but Seth just waltzed across the snow, water, and slippery rocks like it was nothing and I couldn’t really stay on the other side, so I crawled across too.
The last one wasn’t nearly as bad and we had a little sliver of trail that wasn’t covered by ice and snow. 
After all that, it was lunch time so we stopped by a nice little creek that I can’t remember the name of and made some lunch.
Beef stroganoff in any form is so gross that it’s probably served in hell, but it is completely edible after a morning of hiking. 
After finishing lunch, we packed up and headed down the trail.
We were going down a set of switchbacks that had nearly killed us last time when we met a group of girls carrying huge backpacks who looked about high school age on their way up. They looked like they were all hating life. One of their leaders stayed back after they passed to ask if they were almost done with the switchbacks. It was a Young Life group and the leaders weren’t telling the girls how far they would have to hike before camp. Their camp was right next to the creek that Seth and I had lunch at and we told her about the melting snow. She said she had been across it the week before with a different group and was planning to bring this group across at 2am the next morning.
The looks we gave her…..
I checked the news for the next week and didn’t see anything so they must have all made it.
I totally forgot to mention this earlier, but there was a pocket in the shorts of my hiking skirt and it was perfect for keeping my phone out of the way until I wanted to take a picture. 
After the switchbacks, we were only 8 miles away from Grand Lake and feeling pretty excited.
I had completely forgotten how many small runoffs and bridges are on this end of the trail. They were everywhere! I must have blocked it from my mind since it was the most miserable part of our trip last time.
We did forget bug spray and walking by this pond was as close as we came to being really uncomfortable. The mosquitoes were out in full force!
I had to get a do-over picture at this spot. The last time I was here, I was pretty much hating life and fake smiling.
It even rained for a while which helped to keep the mosquitoes away. Sethy was a good sport and let me take some pictures of him by the water too.
You guys, I must have blocked out everything about this part of the trail from last time because I don’t remember walking under this rock either.
More water and bridges that I didn’t remember.
I do remember how excited we were to pass a little cabin near this creek and know that we were nearing the end. This time, we stopped and watched the fish for a while and Seth was sad because he didn’t bring his fly rod.
One last little uphill where we veered away from the creek and we were suddenly at the end!
We were tired and happy to be done, but this trip was a million times better than the last one! I’ve already forgotten exactly how long it took us, but I think it was somewhere around 11 hours and we totally took our time and walked super slow so it could definitely be done much faster.
We couldn’t have done the hike without Seth’s parents though. Not only did they keep the boys overnight, they drove through RMNP to Grand Lake and waited in town to pick us up with only a vague idea of when we would arrive. Then, they drove us back to our car at the Bear Lake trailhead and waited until we were safely on our way. I love it so much that they are so happy to spend time making memories with the boys and catering to our hiking whims.
Maybe they just did it because they wanted us to stop talking about how badly we wanted to do it. 😉
Anyway, if you ever get the chance to do this hike, I highly recommend it. It’s a fairly easy trail with amazing views for the first half and a beautiful forest and river in the second half. Don’t be like me and forget sunscreen or bug spray though.